Cool and damp, but maybe no rain? We’re sorta in the rain zone, but who knows. Yesterday was overcast most of the day with occasional sunlight. No rain though.
I did family things all day. Egg hunt, Easter baskets, breakfast, bread making, and dinner prep ate most of the day. What wasn’t used for that got spent catching up on some auction stuff, while youtube vids played on the other monitor. Kids were wrapped up in their own stuff most of the day. We did play a game after dinner.
Today should be more cleaning and sorting. Housecleaning service is supposed to come by and do the heavy lifting. I just have to get some stuff picked up and put away. If it’s clear, I might even get over to my storage unit, and do some sorting there.
If it’s raining, I’ll do more cleaning and paperwork here. Tax time is upon us, and some stuff needs to be put in order before sending to the accountant.
There is also the not inconsequential task of cleaning and sorting the cans on my pantry shelves. Some more fruit cans popped in the pantry area, and now I’ve got a real mess. Far more damaged cans than I first thought, and extra possum mess besides. No wonder the little beast was hanging out- some of the stuff in the very back was leaking. Well, I know I’ll have losses due to poor conditions, and some of the stuff is approaching 10 years in the stacks, so it’s past time to go through it again. It’s a bio-hazard and needs to be addressed soon.
Even with FIFO policy, and can organizers for much of it, there is food we don’t normally eat and food we only eat occasionally in the stacks, so we don’t rotate through the whole stack before it REALLY ages out. I can accept that. I’d rather have the food on hand. No way to know when the last trip to the supermarket could be, so I maintain the level I’d need if today was that last day. Well, I’ll be below it with all the breakage, until I can replace it.
And I might not replace all of it. If I assume we can get to the BOL or travel between them, I can split the resources between them. If I assume that we may be stuck at either place, then I need full stacks at both locations. The reality is that I might never get stuck in either situation, and I might never need the stuff. But having it is what prepping is about for me, so I’ll probably waffle back and forth, starting by splitting the stacks, and building both sets back up to full.
First step is cleaning and saving what I can. And that might happen today, or later this week… depending.
So stack it high, but realize that you will have losses, and you might not need it. Like a gun or a parachute, it’s much better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
nick
The fraud caught on tape has nothing to do with it, of course.
Details, details…
Not raining at the moment, and chilly, so about what was expected.
Coffee is brewing.
n
Texas Republicans have an abortion obsession which may yet be their downfall.
What saves them for now is that the Dems run loons for Governor, and their Senate candidates do not make strong arguments for replacing the RINOs who currently hold the seats.
I paraphrase Douglas Adams with that line.
I think that about developers I work with from time to time, but I try not to say it out loud. I’ve slipped on occasion, however.
This guy? Just from the expression on his face, you know that he uses both hands at his day job.
https://www.sherwoodforestfaire.com/
My wife and kids saw “Super Maro Bros.” yesterday while I stayed home and did taxes.
The verdict? Disney is toast.
Packed theater, one of several running the movie at the same time, many kids in attendance wearing Mario or Donkey Kong t-shirts.
I’m hoping Favreau can at least save the Star Wars franchise. He’s been talking about how it was wrong what Disney did to Gina Carano. Bringing her back would be a good first step. I assume he has some pull.
I now have 367G of classic cartoons(plus seeded it twice). Not sure what is all in there, but at least the Golden Collection. Send me a flash drive if you want a copy.
Saw John Wick 4 yesterday. It was ok, just more of the same stuff ramped up even more. The theatre was barren. Our theatre ended up with about 15 people for the show. It was really weird seeing the lobby so empty. It would have been apocalyptic if not for Mario. Oh, and there was a solid half hour of commercials and trailers. Even my wife, who loves the trailers, was saying enough.
Saw John Wick 4 yesterday. It was ok, just more of the same stuff ramped up even more. The theatre was barren. Our theatre ended up with about 15 people for the show. It was really weird seeing the lobby so empty. It would have been apocalyptic if not for Mario. Oh, and there was a solid half hour of commercials and trailers. Even my wife, who loves the trailers, was saying enough.
Did you stay for the Marvel like bonus scene after the credits ? That was strange. Makes me think that there will be a John Wick 5 without Keanu Reeves.
And yes, the move was a solid 3 hours plus the previews. Dad had to get up and go 20 minutes before the ending.
Yes, I call it a private showing. I don’t understand why AMC and Cinemark are still alive. Reputedly, Amazon is going to buy AMC.
I don’t understand why AMC and Cinemark are still alive.
– because there are rules about who can own the exhibitors, some of the potential buyers are disqualified.
Their costs are very low. Rent or taxes (and probably they are really real estate companies in disguise, like Sears or McDs) and power. Their labor is very low. Most of them lose money on the film admission but make money on concessions.
It’s been that way for a long time. However, if NO one comes, no concession sales either…
n
I sneak in a box of candy that I have purchased at Walgreens. I have yet to figure out how to sneak in a large drink which is not a high priority as all it does is make me want to pee. I refuse to purchase their heavily over salted and poor quality popcorn.
In the same way that television shows only exist to sell commercial advertising, it could be said that movie houses (cinemas) only exist to sell concessions.
If everyone beat the system like that, the business model would have to change.
n
(and like online ads and adblockers)
@Ray Thompson
camelback canteen
Out in Pflugerville, not from from the local HPE offices, the Cinemark plays Bollywood on the weekend using half of the screens. The theaters are always packed.
The Feds bailed out Cinemark and AMC during the pandemic.
Amazon may or may not have antitrust problems buying AMC since they are kinda-sorta a studio.
We stayed for the post credits scene. I agree with you, though I think there is a way to bring Keanu back.
My wife might carry a couple bottle of water in her purse into the theatre. And snacks. For me it’s just a zip lock back with some almonds.
I doubt Gina Carano would want to rejoin “The Mandalorian” at this point.
Beyond the political fuss, Carano went out at what may be regarded as the high water mark for the series.
>> https://www.sherwoodforestfaire.com/
Resisting clicking that link so far…
Perfectly safe. I put it at 50-50 that the putz at the top of the page filed the complaint with HR at the tolling company which ultimately led to my firing.
Putz was a failed developer from the National Instrument discard pile, but he spent 20 years there and had a UW CS degree which appealed to the Austrians.
I was in trouble at that job from the interview. I have no idea why they hired me beyond they desperately needed the skillset. Among other developers on the payroll was a *convicted* DUI manslaughter defendant awaiting sentencing on two counts.
Kentucky Governor fights back tears as he reveals two friends were among the four killed by disgruntled bank staffer who shot up work conference at 8:30am: Nine injured and gunman ‘neutralized’
n
Out in Pflugerville, not from from the local HPE offices, the Cinemark plays Bollywood on the weekend using half of the screens. The theaters are always packed.
The Feds bailed out Cinemark and AMC during the pandemic.
Amazon may or may not have antitrust problems buying AMC since they are kinda-sorta a studio.
The rumor is that Amazon wants to buy AMC so they have a guaranteed place to show their movies to register the movies for SAG and Oscar credit.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/amazon-reportedly-considering-purchase-amc-entertainment
The AMC short sellers are in distress.
https://www.thestreet.com/memestocks/amc/amc-stock-amazon-acquisition-rumors-short-squeeze
Questionable Content: Hot-swappable Tails !
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5021
Emmett is a genius.
BC: Flight Simulator
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2023/04/10
I am fairly sure that there will not be many repeat customers.
Netflix didn’t have any trouble finding theaters for the limited run of “Knives Out: Glass Onion” on Thanksgiving week.
The two theaters at the Alamo where we saw the film were packed, and every showing was sold out through the following Sunday night.
Of course, people wanted to see “Knives Out” unlike some of Amazon’s product.
What? Do they want to make “Rings of Power” films now?
“I Think Faster Than Light Travel is Possible. Here’s Why.” by Sabine Hossenfelder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-jIplX6Wjw
“If you’ve been following my channel for a really long time, you might remember that some years ago I made a video about whether faster-than-light travel is possible. I was trying to explain why the arguments saying it’s impossible are inconclusive and we shouldn’t throw out the possibility too quickly, but I’m afraid I didn’t make my case very well. This video is a second attempt. Hopefully this time it’ll come across more clearly!”
Why not ? The problem is the transition and the energy required.
And looks like good extra credit for a junior high / high school science student.
“A long-dormant lake has reappeared in California, bringing havoc along with it”
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/long-dormant-lake-reappeared-california-bringing-havoc-rcna75942?utm_source=pocket-newtab
“Months of atmospheric river storms have pummeled the area, which is home to crucial farmland. A historic snowpack in the mountains above the basin will make things worse.”
California is just a rolling disaster lately.
“Ron DeSantis introduces eager crowd to ‘addicting’ Buc-ee’s beaver nuggets”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/ron-desantis-beaver-nuggets-bucees-17888304.php
“Luckily for DeSantis, he doesn’t have to travel far to get his hands on the delectable snack. The news conference was actually somewhat of an Buc-ee’s induction ceremony for the Sunshine State, which he announced will soon be home to the largest Buc-ee’s ever built, at 80,000 square feet with 120 fuel pumps and more than 720 parking spots.”
Bucc-ees is going interstate in a major way.
“The End of the World Survivors Club” by Adrian J. Walker
https://www.amazon.com/Survivors-Club-Adrian-J-Walker/dp/1785035738?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a three book dark fantasy science fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Del Rey in 2019 that I bought new from Amazon.
I was wrong, this is a two book series. The third book is another apocalypse.
“The End of the World Running Club” by Adrian J. Walker
https://www.amazon.com/End-World-Running-Club/dp/149265602X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number one of a three book dark fantasy science fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Sourcebooks in 2017, originally published by Del Rey in the UK in 2014, that I bought new from Amazon. I have purchased the following two books in the series.
I was wrong, this is a two book series. The third book is another apocalypse.
DeSantis predecessor was not as generous with the tax breaks so the first “Florida” Buc-ee’s, Pensacola, ended up just across the state line in Alabama, and the Fort Myers/Naples store was cancelled.
Focus for expansion lately seems to be on important transportation links for SEC football
“CHARGED UP: Urgent warning to electric car drivers as thieves target motors while they’re charging – don’t get caught out”
https://www.the-sun.com/motors/7838598/electric-cars-thieves-motors-charging/
“Many drivers hook up their cables from their car to a socket in a garage or on an outside wall while they relax indoors, often leaving it connected overnight. The cables are sometimes stolen from the vehicle’s boot but can be removed at a charging point if the car is unattended. And the scrap value for materials in a cable may be worth around £50, plus second-hand chargers are being sold for around £200. However, motorists could see themselves paying £700 for a brand-new replacement charger.”
Catalytic converters, EV charging cables, what next ?
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Californians were wailing about not getting enough rain and rivers drying up and them having a drought.
Then they get plenty of precipitation.
Now Californians are whining about having too much water.
Sheesh. No satisfying them. It’s become obvious that California is populated entirely by women.
@lynn, remember when T tops on cars were a thing? They were easily stolen, you just reached in and flipped a latch. ‘Course you might have to break the door window to do it.
The market for stolen T tops was almost exactly equal to the number of cars that had their T tops stolen. Kinda like EV chargers and cables…
Things that make you go “Hmmmm”.
The primary way stolen T tops were sold was to crooked insurance adjusters, who would get them to the auto shop, but collude with the shop to bill for new ones, and then split the difference. The exact same scam got repeated with what we used to call the GM “big face” radios. They wouldn’t fit any other cars, so the market for them was limited to GM cars which had their radios stolen. After that it was air bags. There is always a market, even if you have to create it yourself.
n
(I bet the same thing is happening with stolen cats too.)
Feeling kinda weird today. Just a bit light headed. I felt the same yesterday but put it down to too much sugar and not enough real food. That isn’t the case today.
I’ve been sorting stuff, but mainly want to lay down…
n
The water problem in Cacafornia is that they haven’t built any new reservoirs or water storage facilities since the first Brown administration. Not Jerry Brown; Jerry’s DAD. FIFTY YEARS with no new dams, and insufficient maintenance on the old ones. But they HAVE imported 20 million more PEOPLE in that period.
But even in the 200 year recorded history of CA, there have been cycles of drought and wet years, and this isn’t anything new.
Feeling kinda weird today. Just a bit light headed. I felt the same yesterday but put it down to too much sugar and not enough real food. That isn’t the case today.
I’ve been sorting stuff, but mainly want to lay down…
n
CHECK YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE !
“REVEALED: “Transgender” Terrorist Who Wanted to Blow Up Colorado Middle School is an Avowed Communist and Deranged Trump Hater – Planned More School Attacks (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/revealed-transgender-terrorist-who-wanted-to-blow-up-colorado-middle-school-is-an-avowed-communist-and-deranged-trump-hater-planned-more-school-attacks-video/
“Colorado Springs, Colorado -The Gateway Pundit reported last week that Colorado Springs police stopped a male-to-female “transgender” person from blowing up a middle school on March 31. The suspect, 19-year-old William Whitworth, who identifies as “Lilly” and uses she/her pronouns, had laid out extensive plans to plant bombs at and shoot students at Timberview Middle School in Colorado Springs that same day. This came just a week after another trans brutally murdered six people, including three children at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.”
As far as I can tell, all of the transgender people are mentally ill.
“Biden’s illegal move to ban vehicle internal combustion engines”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/bidens-illegal-move-to-ban-vehicle-internal-combustion-engines
“On Wednesday, the Biden Administration proposes to do through the administrative state what cannot be done through Congress. According to multiple news reports, the Administration will propose regulations on tailpipe emissions for vehicles manufactured in the year 2027 and after. These rules will de facto ban internal combustion engines, ICE. Moreover, the regulations would fundamentally alter the industrial base of the United States.”
“Under the proposed rules, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, would limit the emissions that each car company’s fleet of vehicles could emit. The proposed rules would be so draconian that, in time, car companies would only produce electric vehicles, EVs.”
Slow Joe cannot do this without Congress. SCOTUS has already said so.
“Not only does Biden ignore the Constitution with his proposed tailpipe regulations, but he also ignores the recent United States Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v. EPA, where the Court said that when the Administrative State issues regulations on “major questions,” the legislative authority for such regulations must be clear. Under the “major questions doctrine,” there are “extraordinary cases” in which the “economic and political significance” of proposed regulations are such that clear Congressional authorization must form the basis for such regulations. Effectively banning ICEs is unquestionably a “major question.””
Jerry Sr. took office sixty years ago. He was gone four years later, replaced by Reagan in ’67.
Cars and, thus, mobility are going away for most of the population. If they don’t get it done through the EPA, there will be another route they try.
Honestly, I think it comes down to pettiness over the masses being everywhere the Progs want to visit. Today’s Peter King column for NBC Sports has a few paragraphs where King, a serious lefty, complains about the reservation system necessary to see the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. He isn’t alone among media types in the last few years.
Last summer, I listened to Glenn Beck go on for an hour about Yellowstone lines being worse than Disney.
At least Beck is honest in where he was coming from with that rant. He isn’t talking about “saving the planet”.
Greg said:
Which tells you how long I’ve been using this rant about Cacafornia water policies.
6-8 years ago, I heard a radio story about how the CA drought was so bad, it would take ELEVEN TRILLION GALLONS OF WATER to put things even. Not more than a week later, the Sacramento weather report said that an “atmospheric river” of water was heading toward the southern California coast, containing TWELVE TRILLION GALLONS of rain water. I thought, “If only there were dams and reservoirs in Southern California, everything would be good!”
But alas, all that rain just caused floods and mudslides before washing out to sea, because Jerry Brown had NEVER been serious about doing anything to solve the problems. And when we DID have good rainfall, all the captured water was allowed to flow straight out to the Pacific.
*We used to have storms called the “Pineapple Express”, because they picked up prodigious amounts of water near Hawaii, and flowed into, and flooded, the California coast. Then suddenly they were “atmospheric rivers”, and NOBODY used the term “pineapple express” any more.
That was Pat Brown.
New question: Did slo jo ever pass a university class in Thermodynamics?
I don’t think that Greta Thuneberg did either.
Edmund Gerald Brown Sr. begat Edmund Gerald Brown Jr.
God only knows where “Pat” comes from in there.
Time for a thorough physical. Don’t pull a Bob on us and just ignore he symptoms.
BootyJuice’s hubby is worse than him:
Chasten Buttigieg wonders if conservatives are going to boycott water next
Maybe this is why BootyJuice makes such bad decisions. His hubby is behind him “poking” decisions. I bet they both boycott plenty of things. Nobody has to accept dumb corporate decisions or accept LBGTQWERTY.
The Dumbocrats are sure ghouls:
WH and KJP don’t bother waiting until the bodies are cold to blame GOP for Louisville mass shooting
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Nor the deaths of innocents, unless they are QWERTY.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11956593/Bud-Light-marketing-VP-said-wanted-update-fratty-branding-days-Dylan-Mulvaney-ad.html
–Buttlight’s marketing person looks “odd”. If she was labeled a m-→ f trans, I wouldn’t even blink. She can’t be, because she’d have announced it, but …
n
“New question: Did slo jo ever pass a university class in Thermodynamics?”
Shirley, you jest.
Mayor Pete is so Deep State and Chasten’s behavior is so far out there that I sometimes wonder if the gay home life is an act.
If so, then he had some radical facial feminization surgery, probably in Thailand, where they do things which aren’t legal here.
The transgender member of the rank-and-file at the Death Star whose antics contributed to management breaking the union had some serious plastic surgery in Thailand, to the tune of $80,000 in 2009 dollars.
A portion of the ABC News special covering him/her. The union folded after a year of playing hardball within 24 hours of this broadcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhE6HlHhrPk
“Using Nuclear Energy to Produce Synthetic Fuels: A carbon-capture expert on synthesizing low-carbon fuels”
https://spectrum.ieee.org/synthetic-fuel
“While renewable energy is helping to decarbonize the power sector, transport today still relies heavily on fossil fuels. More than a third of the world’s carbon-dioxide emissions in 2021 came from transporting people and cargo, according to the International Energy Agency.”
“Synthetic fuels—drop-in replacements for liquid fuels such as gasoline and kerosene—could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of transportation if they are made from captured carbon-dioxide emissions and hydrogen from an emissions-free source. The problem is that producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels requires a large amount of clean energy.”
I want to see an operating plant for a few years before we move our entire economy over to this.
I’d bet dollars to donuts that NOBODY in the Brandon administration has ever taken a class in thermodynamics – or ANY class in the pure sciences. And probably, none of them even knows what “thermodynamics” means.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/04/10/green-energy-crunch-time-aussie-liddell-coal-plant-closes-this-month/
NSW is New South Wales. Australia’s largest city, Sydney, is in NSW, as is Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Where Canberra, the capitol of Australia is located.
According to the article, Liddell has been neglected for years, is falling apart, and might not make it to April 28. Operating it longer is inviting disaster.
I’m usually sympathetic to innocents, but not so much the case here. These are the people that willingly lined up to be gelded and have voted time after time for fantasies promulgated with the all-in assistance of people that should know better–people that took thermo, know what limited natural resources are in the context of renewable energy, and can figure out that energy payback on a wind turbine or solar farm is at least decades and probably never.
At some point we’re going to have the first catastrophic failure of green energy policy with a large death toll. Better sooner than later and this looks like a good opportunity.
Best scenario would be the government ordering Liddell to stay operating and the union refusing due to unsafe operating conditions. They can put the military in as operators so there won’t be any direct loss of civilian life when it blows. Best result then would be a cascade failure that irrevocably damages the electrical grid, turning the lights out for 8 million people in the middle of a windless cold winter.
At that point it probably doesn’t matter much if the lights stay on in Canberra due to emergency generating capacity and fuel reserves that were quietly installed without fanfare to keep “vital functions” going. People don’t have any weapons to fire in anger, so their best contribution would be for about a million to freeze to death in the dark.
1,000,000. Nice round number. Shock value, to those that haven’t been paying attention while voting green, and haven’t realized that their future is eating bugs and riding bicycles in service of the world’s wealthy plantation owners.
Sad to say, it won’t be enough. But at least NSW won’t be able to blame Trump.
ADDED:
The Hon. (Penny) Penelope Gail SHARPE, MLC
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/Member-details.aspx?pk=28
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Sharpe
“studied food technology”–no mention of a degree.
Vote Thermo-Free for Catastrophe
RE: Ken Mitchell post about no new lakes in 50 years.
You are mistaken. Diamond Lake in Hemet was started in 1995, completed in 1999, and finished being filled in 2003. It is one of the largest lakes in the Metropolitan Water System, holding up to 800,000 acre foot of water.
Please find something else to rant about
re: new lakes
Are there any others?
An average household uses .5 acre-feet per year, so 800,000 acre-feet is 1.6 million households.
But no industry or agriculture.
20 million additional people (stated above; I have no idea the real numbers) would require probably 8 or 10 such lakes, again, with no industrial or agricultural use.
FWIW, conversion of 1 Trillion gallons = 3,000,000 ish acre-feet.
A Trillion here, a Trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real numbers.
800K acre-feet is literally a drop in the bucket of what California needs. It’s smaller than Folsom, a quarter the size of Lake Oroville, a fifth the size of Shasta. It’s the 12th largest reservoir in CA, and the “pinheads under the dome” (to quote talk-show host Tom Sullivan) needed to be building one that size or larger EVERY YEAR, and failed to do so.
When I lived in Sacramento, I voted for a bond measure to start building reservoirs. A billion dollars later, they hadn’t approved even ONE, and they’d said right out loud that they weren’t GOING to build any.
Which was, three years ago, one of many reasons why my wife said “We have to get out of California!”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_reservoirs_of_California
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11958797/Al-Jaffee-veteran-Mad-magazine-cartoonist-dead-102.html
– who knew?
n
Al Jaffee and MAD Magazine were part of my childhood. I’m sad he’s gone, but I’m delighted that he lived so long.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jaffee
Quite possibly the last funny thing that Colbet did.
>> I have yet to figure out how to sneak in a large drink which is not a high priority as all it does is make me want to pee.
Easier than you might think, my wife did it all the time (until we got the 55 inch TV and gave up going to the theater.) Just stop at the local 7/Eleven, get a Super Big Gulp, leaving the cup about an inch short of full and ask the clerk for a bag. Without inserting the straw, put the cup in the bag, twist the bag shut and knot it. Have the wife bring a small woman’s backpack in lieu of a handbag and stash the soda and a sweatshirt (to prop up the cup) into the backpack. Carry it gently so as to not pop off the lid and ‘Bob’s your uncle.’